The Reel

The Assassin’s Creed trailer has dropped on Wednesday, May 11th and has received over 900,00 views so far with a fairly positive amount of likes. What makes this film differ from the games is that this is an original story set in the same universe as the story in the game instead of based on the story that has happened so far. Starring Michael Fassbender playing the character Callum Lynch set in 15th century Spain during the inquisition with Sci-fi elements that allow his character to tap into the memories of this time period. This movie is set to release sometime this year.

But let’s also take this to talk about Video-Game Adaptations. For over 2 decades Hollywood had made several attempts to create films based on video game, whether it’s based on or around the topic. As history shown, most are not good films, they’re either so bad its good (like Super Mario Bros. The Movie, Street Fighter the movie and Tekken: Blood Vengeance), just bad (The King of Fighters) or at best it’s ok (Which is code for a good video game adaptation, like Mortal Kombat, but not a great movie). There are actual good ones like Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist that did show on how to create a good adaptation and actual be considered a great movie, but it’s not a Hollywood release and this was mostly independent. A few of weeks ago we just had the release of Ratchet & Clank movie based on the game with the same name, but with poor reviews, of which is not new to genre. With Assassin’s Creed being set to release and the upcoming Warcraft there might be a chance that either one (or both) could break that barrier and considered a great movie overall especially since the director of Warcraft (Duncan Jones) stated that he wants this to be a “great movie”. All we have a hope that this can be broken; it has worked for comic book films, remember it years for the genre to be taken seriously and we can thank Tim Burton and Richard Donner for the Batman (1 & 2) and Superman (1 & 2), Blade, Christopher Nolan’s Batman Trilogy and last, Marvel Studios itself showing the world that comic book movies can be complex, compelling and fun.

This past weekend Marvel studios has released their latest movie and the beginning of Phase three Captain America: Civil War. This film is both a sequel to the Russo Brothers previous film “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” and Josh Whedon’s “Avengers: Age of Ultron”, as the film discusses the casualties that had happen in the previous marvel films and The U.N. has issue a registration act or as in the film the Sokovia Accords of which forces our heroes to work for the U.N. instead of as an independent force. Our heroes take opposite side in this debate with Tony Stark (Played by Robert Downey Jr.) on the side for the accords and Steve Rogers (Played by Chris Evans) opposing it. It’s not just that, we also have to deal with Bucky Barns (Played by Sebastian Stan) who is being held responsible for an attack on the U.N. of which complicates the situation. So now Captain America have to prove his friend’s innocence while Iron Man and his team out to catch Bucky Barnes.

We also being introduced to 2 New Heroes in the MCU; Black Panther (Played by Chadwick Boseman) who plays not a large roll, but enough to define who he is and how he works, and next Spider-Man (Played by Tom Holland) who just makes a small appearance in the movie, but managed to fully capsulate the Marvel character better than the Two previous portrayals of Spider-Man. Both these new additions give you hope for their upcoming movies, “Black Panther” and “Spider-Man: Homecoming”.

You can’t forget about the action and once again Marvel delivers with arguably two best sequence, the Airport battle between all our heroes which bring so many surprises and references/Easter eggs to this scene that even with multiple watches you’ll still find something more to love. There is also the final fight scene between Iron Man, Captain America & Bucky Barnes which may not be as big as the airport one, but packs in so much emotion with it. Even though is called “Civil War” we do have a main villain by the name of Baron Zemo (Played by Daniel Brühl) who stays in the background most of the movie, but does have a clever plan of which I will not spoil. But since this movie capsulate our heroes fighting each other taking to focus, we don’t fully dwell into Zemo enough to fully consider him a major villain, but he and his goal is not the entire focus.

Captain America Civil War still delivers great action, a compelling narrative, stellar portrayals from our actors, it worth seeing in theaters and staying for the 2 end credit scenes.

The DC Cinematic Universe has officially begun with its second film in their line up, “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” which was released on Friday, March 25; it’s opening weekend has grossed about $166,007,347 (shown on Boxofficemojo.com), but has dropped -69.1% in its second weekend. For a film with a budget of $250 million that bad. How bad is that? Let’s take the 2 DC Films that have failed before Man of Steel which was “Green Lantern” (released in 2011) & “Batman & Robin” (Noted as the Worst Batman Film ever made and was released in 1997); “Green Lantern” had dropped to -66.1% in its second weekend and “Batman & Robin” had dropped to -63.7%. That means more people went back to see those films than Batman v Superman. This film was one of the most request movies that Fan of DC (and Comics in General) always wanted to see, some more than seeing Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and even The Avengers and with all that hype, how did this movie had a lot less people coming back? Well Rotten Tomatoes having a bad Rotten Tomatoes score doesn’t help which is at 28% as of April 25. That is not good for this film nor is this good for their film universe. Marvel Studios are about 12 films in which their 13th one “Captain America: Civil War” Due to be release in Friday, May 6th, not to mention their 4 shows set in the universe (Agents of Shield, Agent Carter, Netflix’s Jessica Jones and Daredevil) that help filled out the universe that the studio created.

Before the release of Batman v Superman, news about the movie had worried the fans of putting too much in. For example, talks were in about The Flash, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Doomsday and Cyborg in a movie about Batman and Superman of which just them two would have been good enough for the movie; not to mention they have to throw in a lot of foreshadowing for the overall universe. Since they definitely showed Wonder Woman and Doomsday, fans are in the right to feel nervous about this film. As the film released… yeah it was too much for the film and they should have focus more on Superman of which barely get to do anything and what they shown is either bad for superman or people telling you about Superman (barely him speaking for himself) with few scenes showing Superman Being Superman. Note… there is more bad with the movie which you can watch Nostalgia Critic’s Review of the film on youtube or at his more in depth video on the subject. So what does this say for the Cinematic universe? Well unless they change their direction on what they want to do in their universe like Who do they want to appeal to, topics they want to bring up, philosophies to tackled with their superheroes? Who to Directed these films, who to write, produce, etc… to achieve these goals? Also DC should know that what really makes anybody return to re-watch anything they saw is usually the story itself. With this badly written story with strange (also weak) motivations for our heroes and even villains; more focus on recreating comic book imagery than building character so the audience can care about those moments than just seeing it recreated whether build to it or not. Zack Snyder has Directed this and Man of Steel, people familiar with his work know that he is more about style over defining character. Sucker Punch is a perfect example of that, hey even Watchmen his issues with its story, but it looks great! We need a director that know how to direct action and characters, work well with the writer to achieve it and Zack doesn’t seem to fit that bill. But not the only thing we need a film. The movie can look great, but with bad characters, bad story, little motivation, just them assuming instead of investigation and doing things off-screen that is important to the plot (or character). The next film in their line-up is “Suicide Squad” which is set to be releases in Friday, August 5th and hopefully this movie can restore faith in their universe.

It may be the shortest month of the year but that in no way means it won’t be filled with great must watch movies! Here are 5 potentially must see blockbusters that we can’t wait to see! From thrillers, action, romance, comedy and the much anticipated Spongebob movie! We are excited to see what new movies are coming our way. Below are a couple of movies we just can’t wait to see!

The Seventh Son

Spongebob: Sponge out of Water

Hot Tub Time Machine 2

Fifty Shades of Grey

The Lazarus Effect

(Fantasy; Action) (Premieres
Fri February 6th)

(Family; Comedy) (Premieres
Fri Feb 6th)

(Comedy)
(Premieres
Fri Feb 20th)

(OMG!) (Drama) (Premieres
Fri Feb 13th)

(Horror; Thriller) (Premieres
Fri Feb 27th)

Head to a theaters near you, and let us know what you think of any of these great movies!

It’s Oscar Season! And the 87th academy awards are rapidly approaching! This year the Oscars will be on February 22, 2015 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. The list of Nominees have been revealed today on Thursday January 15th, 2015.

Some of the Nominees are:

Best Picture
American Sniper
Birdman
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Selma
The Theory of Everything
Whiplash

When a group of orphaned children are forced to move from their home in London, caretakers Eve and Jean bring everyone to a lonely British countryside. It isn’t long before Eve starts to sense that this house is not what it appears to be as the children in her care begin to disappear. Eve soon discovers that it may not be a coincidence that she has come to reside in the house inhabited by the Woman in Black.

This Horrifying movie premiered this past Fri 1/2 and the reviews are raving! Head to your nearest theater and let us know what you think!

Many people are never surprised to see changes in the onscreen adaptations of books. Many book lovers, it’s likely that you’ve walked out movie theater and exclaimed, “The book was better!” But is this always the case? A survey was conducted with by BookBub with 100 of their members and the majority preferred the book over the movie adaptations. They were asked about a series of movies which includes “The great Gatsby”, “The Hunger Games”, “Ender’s Game”, “Twelve Years a Slave” and many more. There were some movies, however, that readers thought were just as good as the book.

The Fault in our Stars

The Help

The Hunger Games

The Lucky One

The Great Gatsby

Take some time and Read the Book, then watch the Movie; You be the Judge, Are Movie Adaptations better or worse than the Book?

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 became this year’s biggest opening yet. The movie topped the box office surpassing the $100 million dollar debut of “Transformers: Age of Extinction”. However, even with its $123 million dollar debut the franchise film fell short of the Lionsgate studios initial projection of $130 million and even less than other forecasters’ expectations of $150-$170 Million. This same weekend last year “The Hunger Games: “Catching Fire” opened to $161 million. In March of 2012 the first Hunger Games had a $155 million debut. The 22% decline in opening weekend ticket sales became a concern for Lionsgate who also took a 5% stock drop this past Friday. This can be a serious concern for the studio since “Mockingjay Part 1” is the opening installment of the two part finale of the franchise. Although they hold the record of the biggest opening weekend for two years in a row its unclear whether box office sales will continue to favor “Mocking Jay- Part 1”.

The Fast and the Furious trailer had a huge debut and leaves fan wanting more and anxious for the film’s release. The trailer reached 100 million Facebook views within the first 48 hours. Many fans question whether the Franchise will continue following Paul Walker’s tragic death during the filming of “Furious 7”. After his death Paul’s brothers stepped in as his body doubles. Vin Diesel was quoted saying “…It’s a strange thing to mourn that person and simultaneously pretend that person is next to you. “ Fans can rejoice and be at ease at the thought of 10 Fast and Furious movies! Universal chairman Donna Langley was quoted saying “We think there’s at least 3 more…I think it’s still a growing franchise…” Furious 7 is set to release on April 3rd of 2015.

It seems like Ryan Reynolds will get a second chance at being a superhero. Fox announced on Thursday September 18 that Deadpool will be hitting theaters as a spin off to their X-Men franchise. There have been rumors of Reynolds taking on the role for quite some time but after his first superhero movie Green Lantern disappointed at the box office, it was unsure if they still wanted to move forward with the actor or the movie. The interest in the film was reborn when test footage was leaked two months ago and went completely viral. In an interview with Niagara Falls Review, Reynolds said, “The movie has been in a state of limbo for a while. There was such an overpowering reaction to the footage, you sort of feel like, ‘Oh, so we weren’t crazy for our reasons for loving this character, for loving this role.’ It’s interesting to see the power of the Internet. It’s awe-inspiring, actually.” Goes to show the power of the internet and how much of a voice we all have so don’t ever be afraid to speak up! Deadpool will be hitting theaters February 12, 2016.

Since True Blood is officially over, it was about time someone came out with something to fulfill our vampire obsession. Dracula Untold will be next movie to take on the role of this classic character with Luke Evans playing the role of Vlad Tepes, more commonly known as Vlad the Impaler. Coming Soon recently shared two new clips from the movie and it will be sure to give you nightmares. The imagery in this film is captivating and enticing, reminiscent of the type of filmography in movies like 300. The clips tell us the story of how Vlad came to be one of the most notorious villains in history. We see Evans making a deal to become a vampire in order to save his family and end a war with Charles Dance, better known as Tywin Lannister in Game of Thrones. The movie hits theaters in Imax October 10th.

Chris Rock is known for his role as a comedian. He showed off his hilarious chops in big movie hits like Madagascar, Grown Ups and I Think I Love My Wife which were big hits in the box office. However, he also had a series of more unknown and forgettable movies in his repertoire so it was hard to predict what his new movie was going to be like. Rock’s new movie Top Five is a star studded film featuring Chris Rock himself, Gabrielle Union, Rosario Dawson, Tracy Morgan, Kevin Hart, Jerry Seinfeld, Adam Sandler, Whoopi Goldberg and Cedric the Entertainer. The movie features Rock as a comedian who is trying his hand at being a serious drama film star and fails. He then goes through a series of scandals, marrying a reality TV star, having it written about in the New Yorker and more twists and turns throughout the movie. The film got rave reviews from the Toronto Film Festival with almost all positive responses! Companies like Sony, Paramount, Fox Searchlight, A24, Relativity and Lionsgate are all currently bidding for the distribution rights with the most recent bid being at 10 million dollars.

Stan Lee, the mastermind behind Marvel, let it slip during a Fan expo in Canada that the Black Panther Movie was indeed happening. When asked if Scarlett Johanson’s character, Black Widow, will have her own movie coming soon, Lee stated, “The chances are she will have her own movie because eventually all the superheroes will have their own movies. They are already working on Ant-Man, Doctor Strange and the Black Panther, and there are others I am not allowed to talk about.” Ant-Man recently began filming in San Francisco with Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas and Evangeline Lily as some of the members of the all-star cast. Cinematic Universe has not yet confirmed any upcoming Marvel movies besides The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America 3, and Guardians of the Galaxy which are set to be released in 2015, 2016, and 2017, respectively.

Richard Attenborough, a respected director and actor passed away Sunday at 90 years old. According to his son, Michael Attenborough, he had been in poor health for some time. He had been in a nursing home with his wife for years and has been on a wheelchair following a fall he had six years ago. He was known for beloved films like Jurassic Park, Gandhi, Doctor Doolittle and Brighton Rock, which was his first role in front of the camera back in 1947. His role as a director led him to amazing biographical documentaries on the lives of Churchill, Chaplin, Lewis, Hemingway and of course Gandhi. His last film “Closing the Ring” came out in 2007, with Shirley MacLaine and Christopher Plummer. Prime Minister David Cameron issued a statement after news broke about Attenborough’s death, calling him “one of the greats of cinema.” Cameron later added on that “His acting in `Brighton Rock’ was brilliant, his directing of `Gandhi’ was stunning.” Yet another legendary actor is gone. We hope that wherever you are, you know that you are loved and thank you for all the great movies you have given us.

One of the year’s most anticipated movies, Exodus: Gods and Kings, has been under quite a bit of scrutiny since its trailer was released. With an all-star cast including Christian Bale and Sigourney Weaver, it’s hard to think that anyone would be complaining, but what people have been complaining about is what they’re calling “whitewashing” of the movie. A twitter campaign, #BoycottExodusMovie, arose with people concerned about the fact that the only people of color in the movie are playing slaves while the pharaohs and Egyptians are being played by white people. Actor Joel Edgerton, the Australian actor that was cast in role of Ramses commented on the subject saying “[It’s] not my job to make those decisions… I got asked to do a job and it would have been very hard to say no to that job. I do say that I am sensitive to it and I do, I do understand and empathize with that position.”